Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep Analysis

What does it mean to be human? Over time, humans have evolved as the superior beings on Earth, and they use their basic characteristics of emotions, body structure, and cognition to define humanity. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the author Philip K. Dick showed how the androids could pass and humans due to their advancements. Humans created the physical manifestation of the idea of humanity, and once androids have these characteristics, there is no differentiation between the real and unreal. The fine line between the actual and manufactured beings in the novel caused the android Rachel Rosen to believe her own human existence. After Rick administered the Voigt-Kampff test, “the conclusion of the testing” lead him to determine that Rachel “[was] an android” (Dick 49). Due to the flawless programming of Rachel, and the implementation of “false memories,” she did not even know that she was an android (Dick 56). Her whole life was a lie, and she had lived believing that she was human because she almost had all of the characteristics of humans, but she was lacking some empathy. The humans and androids were so used to being told what the given …show more content…
The character Phil Resch was in fact a human, but his actions led Rick to question his actual existence. When Phil killed, he “like[d] to kill” as opposed to the way in which Rick killed the androids. Phil experienced an empathetic absence in killing, and humanity was defined in the novel as having the ability to feel empathy in order to differentiate between humans and androids. Since Phil was not feeling empathy when he killed, his actions would be defined as nonhuman even though he was in fact an android. The nonexistence of a clear set of characteristic between androids and humans shows how the idea or real and unreal is basically